Hand Holding AU- James & Lily
by kella923
Summary: This is based off of an au I received on my tumblr (karathecurly)! "so I was wondering if you could please maybe write this height difference au: you're afraid that you'll lose me in big crowds so you always hold my hand but now you just hold my hand when there are like 5 people around I'm getting very suspicious. Jily. thank you so much :)"


She was short. Okay? Lily was short, and she knew it, and she was proud. True, the tables at the library came almost all the way to her hips and she had to sit on a book or two if she was in the back of the class. But she was also a force of nature, tiny but mighty. A mere 5′1″, but the first years got out of her way if they saw the top of her red head bobbing up and down in the corridor.

The boys were always worried about her, as they were wont to do. Especially James. Since they had truly become friends in the last year, he forced her to hold his hand or to link arms with him in big crowds. She had appreciated it when they had all gone to a music festival on the seaside the past summer or when she had brought him to a Muggle carnival and had gotten slightly too tipsy to lead them back to her street. It was a little excessive when he made her hold his hand on the way to Hogsmeade- it wasn't that far away, honestly! She was small, and he was basically a giant… Maybe he was afraid that he would lose her because he just couldn't think to look down once in a while. Diagon Alley made sense, with all the witches and wizards bustling everywhere, even she was afraid she'd get turned around sometimes.

But honestly? Here it was, the day before the winter holidays, and James was making her hold his hand on the way to Charms class. It was very sweet of him (truthfully, the idea of holding his hand made her feel excited and shaky inside- but this was a matter of Lily being a very proud 5′1″), but the corridors were nearly deserted, as many of their year had already gone home or were just ditching this period to pack or sleep. She and James had to go, as Head Boy and Girl. The portraits along the fourth-floor kept turning and staring at them, and one of the friendlier warlocks winked at Lily as the two entered the Charms room.

Figures. The entire classroom was empty, with a small note written in the middle of the chalkboard. Class was canceled so that students had time to prepare for the holidays and in case anyone had to leave early. Dammit, why hadn't Flitwick warned them? Speaking of that, why weren't any of their friends with them? Mary hadn't mentioned anything about her favorite class being canceled… Nor did Remus. Ugh.

"Well, we might as well go back to the common room, Evans. The train leaves early tomorrow, we should pa- oh, right." Lily wasn't going home for the holidays. Her mother and sister were far too absorbed in the details of Tuney's wedding, and her father was disengaged, spending his days out of the house in order to keep away from the chaos that was picking serviettes to match the flowers and flowers to match the time of day and place settings to keep the families in line. Lily was shaken out of her thoughts as James grabbed her hand once more, ready to head back to their dormitory.

"Wait, James! Let go, I can get back to the tower well enough without you holding my hand! I know I'm small, but you're still going to walk with me, you needn't worry about my safety. The corridors are deserted, I don't think you'll lose me." She looked up at him, surprised to see his smile at a canceled Charms lesson fading. "What?"

"You don't get it, do you?" He looked almost sad, which shocked her. He hadn't looked sad near Lily since he had apologized for teasing Severus for so many years… What was going on?

"I don't get what?" She put her small hand on her tiny hip, a look many troublesome fourth years had come to dread. This was a look that came with detention and docked points.

"I'm holding your hand all the time because, well… you remember how I used to ask you out every day of the year?"

Lily's eyes widened. Oh Merlin. This wasn't happening.

"Oh, James… You're holding my hand because- you don't want to lose me… but not in a physically lost kind of way? In a more of a romantic sort of way?" She watched as he hung his head, looking as embarrassed as she had ever seen him (including the first time he and the boys had been caught in a prank, on the second day ever of their first year). Her heart was singing, it was ringing for this boy. Apparently he didn't think of her as his little sister, which was how she had always assumed his perception of her. Thank Agrippa.

"You don't like it, I know… Let's just get back to the common room, yeah? I have to pack…" James didn't get to leave. Lily grabbed his hand with both of hers (he really was a giant), and pulled him back into the classroom with all of her might. Which admittedly wasn't a lot, but still. He didn't really resist.

"Lily, what are you doing? Come on, we should get back to-" Just as he didn't get to leave, he didn't get to finish that sentence either. Lily had jumped up and was kneeling on Flitwick's desk, making herself come eye-to-eye with James. Looking at him intensely for a moment or two (it could have been a hundred moments or half a second, James never remembered), she suddenly seized his face with her two little hands and pulled him in for a kiss.

As he leaned into her and picked her up off the desk, James knew that he would never let her go again.

As James lifted her into the air and took her breath away, Lily knew that she would get lost on purpose just so that he could come and find her again.

After a very quiet, heated period of time (the entire canceled class period, possibly the whole evening), making up for the last year of stolen glances and small hands in big ones, the Head Boy and Girl wandered through the darkened corridors. Every few feet, James would pull her into a corner (or vice versa) and remind her why she wasn't allowed to get lost. Lily would respond at the next doorway by showing him exactly why he would always come to find her.

"Hey, Evans?" James whispered at one point, as the two pressed up against each other behind a particularly grotesque statue.

"Yes, Potter?"

"Think my parents would mind if I stayed here for the holidays?"

"I don't know about your parents, hun, but I can assure you that I wouldn't mind in the slightest."


End file.
